Chapters Council Meeting

Welcome & Introductions

Chapters Council Chair Locke Morrisey welcomed Chapters Council representatives to the meeting (nearly 40 were in attendance) and noted that the breakfast refreshments for the meeting were again provided by SIRSI. He encouraged members to stop by the SIRSI booth and thank them for their generous sponsorship.

Election Information

He also introduced Vibiana Bowman, Vice-Chair of Chapters Council, who encouraged people to run for the ACRL chapter offices of Vice-Chair/Chair-elect and Secretary. She indicated that she and Locke were available to serve as mentors and that elections would take place at the Annual Meeting in Orlando.

Minutes

The minutes of the Annual Meeting were approved as amended (a correction associated with the number of Friends of ACRL scholarships in Charlotte and a correction in the spelling of Camila Alire).

Chapter Topics

Locke introduced Debbie Malone,
Chapter Topics editor, who encouraged submissions to the next issue of the newsletter by the May 9 deadline. She noted that there appears to be an increasing trend in the number of scholarships and mentoring programs that are being offered by Chapters.

ACRL Director-At-Large candidates

Locke introduced Debbie Malone & Lynn King who had been nominated by Chapters Council for the position of ACRL Director At-Large.

Email List and Chapter Information

Linda Kopecky relayed information regarding changes in the email list and in the process of subscribing and unsubscribing to it. She asked the chapter reps to review the list and ensure that at least one person from each chapter is on the list. Locke commended Linda for her work on the list and both Locke and Linda encouraged the group to use it to share ideas, ask for suggestions. etc. and not think of it as just an avenue for ACRL to send information to chapter reps. Members were also asked to review the Chapter roster that had been distributed at the meeting and to send changes to Dawn Mueller at the ACRL office. Locke also introduced Megan Bielefeld, ACRL Program Coordinator, who serves as the liaison to the ACRL chapters. Megan spoke of the importance of having officers be ACRL members in the chapters and she handed out information flyers from ACRL of potential interest to chapter members.

ACRL @your Library Campaign

Ken Marks, Chair of the ACRL Taskforce on the @your Library campaign, reminded members of former ACRL President Helen Spaulding's focus on marketing and briefly described the material and training programs that had been developed and presented in association with the campaign. He noted that the task force had also prepared a Marketing Toolkit that can be used by libraries who wish to develop or enhance their marketing efforts. Ken stated that the task force had now morphed into a Marketing Committee that will be a permanent ACRL committee. One of the new Committee’s efforts is to develop proposals associated with an award sponsored by World Book. He also mentioned his desire to work with chapters that might be interested in submitting proposals. Mervyn Solomon, Chair of the Florida Chapter expressed an interest. Deadline for proposals is in the fall. Interest was expressed in having a marketing workshop speaker in lieu of having an ACRL officer attend a chapter conference. Mary Ellen Davis said she would check on the feasibility of such an arrangement and also mentioned that it is possible that someone in our own chapters may have attended the workshops and might be willing to lead such groups.

Updates from ACRL Officers and Staff

Mary Ellen Davis, ACRL Executive Director, emphasized the importance of Megan Bielefeld and her chapter liaison role. She also described the plans underway to make a presentation at the American Association of Higher Education conference in the Spring. Davis and ACRL President Tyrone Cannon intend to present case studies highlighting the value of libraries on campus to the Provosts, Deans and Faculty attending the conference.

Davis also noted that ACRL is expanding its e-learning efforts. They are moving away from webcasts because the response to them is less than expected. The new focus is the increasing use of WebCT for 3-week seminars to build a community of learners. She indicated that ACRL needs good presenters on various topics to provide training and professional development to members. In addition they are using e-alerts as a way of reporting on ACRL activities, C&RL News is now available online and members can sign up for electronic ACRL updates. Megan will post instructions for receiving these updates to the Chapters listserv.

Introduction of officer candidates

Locke introduced the candidates for ACRL President - Camila Alire and Charles Kratz – and reminded members of the Candidates Forum being held shortly after the meeting. He encouraged us all to attend.

Update from ACRL President, Tyrone Cannon

Tyrone reminded members of the ACRL President’s forum on the theme of partnerships and collaborations. Speakers are Patricia Senn Brevik from San Jose with its combined university and public library, David Lewis from IUPUI with its collaboration on freshman year experience and Ilene Rockman with its information literacy partnerships in California. Following the forum there will be a 15th Anniversary celebration of the ACRL white paper on information literacy.

He told councilors of his plans to visit chapters in Maryland and New Jersey in the Spring and highlighted activities associated with the strategic plan including a workshop that he attended on leadership and strategic planning with consultants that he thought would be useful for ACRL. As a result he arranged to get outside consultants to help with the strategic planning process for the division. As part of the process they have held focus groups to understand views of members and non-members and they have surveyed the membership on its views. The Board got together in October to review input and prepared a draft plan. He briefed the councilors on the general timeline and the key components, including the Big Hairy Audacious Goal to be recognized as key to the academic enterprise. He indicated that the plan is to have the plan posted in its entirety on the ACRL site and to allow members to have input. He urged Chapter Council members to email him, the ACRL staff or board members with questions, comments and suggestions and thanked everyone for their input to date. He also noted that many of the strategic objectives have already been developed but that there is still a need to work on action plans and implementation. Locke said he'd be asking Tyrone to have speaker at next Chapters Council meeting regarding the strategic plan.

Update from Frances Maloy, ACRL Vice President

Frances reminded members of her general theme – the context of research education and teaching and how libraries can engage in this teaching and learning process - and she emphasized the importance of original thinking in this area. She noted that she would also be working on the implementation aspects of the ACRL strategic plan. She mentioned that her web page with more information on her theme is accessible as a link from Tyrone's page. She also answered questions from Councilors about the nominating committee and the appointment committee and indicated that members have been appointed. She stated that it was not too late to try for committee involvement and that she's especially interested in getting new ACRL members.

Discussion and Announcements

Board update: Board members, Pat Kreitz and Lois Cherepon, commented that the board had reviewed the suggested changes from Chapter Councilors and had made some changes, e.g. chapters may now receive $1.50 per member from ACRL. There are still rules regarding what the money may be spent on and it is important for chapters to clarify their funding. Chapters must ask for the reimbursement. Cherepon also mentioned that updates regarding chapter funding were needed and that Megen Bielfield would be the contact. Cherepone spoke of the importance of having a guide to policies and procedures and that it is now available for review on the ACRL website. In response to a question on how the new strategic plan might enhance the chapter connection, Tyrone spoke about reviewing the overall structure of ACRL. He emphasized how very important it was to provide feedback and for chapter councilors to review what had been submitted.

PR for Conference: Locke pointed out that there were already PR items, e.g. ribbons and magnets, were now available and they’d be used as advertising for the 2005 conference.

Legislative Day: Debbie Malone from the Deleware Valley chapter encouraged Chapter Councilors to participate in Legislative Day being held on May 4, 2004. She spoke of the Day’s importance and of the need to have ACRL librarians involved in the process. She also emphasized that unlike public librarians who often have to focus on the need for funding, academic librarians could highlight the importance of selected legislation of importance to academic libraries and things like work study support for students.

Local Chapter Symposia: Sherry Edwards described the fact that concern had been expressed that Chapters hadn't been involved in the Focus on the Future effort. As a result there was a suggestion that all chapters participate in symposia regarding the challenges. There was also the suggestion that Chapters could use the chapter listserv for that purpose. It was reported that Michigan has put a call out for papers on one of the seven topics. Sherrie reiterated that it was not clear whether or not the issues important to the Chapters had "found a home" in ACRL. Lois Cheperon suggested that ACRL could develop an electronic meeting format that would provide a coordinated effort. She suggested that the Chapters Council prepare an action request for the Board to consider Chapter involvement in the consideration of the 7 action items.

Councilors agreed on the importance of developing a proposal to give to the Board regarding the need for the Board to make a systematic and coordinated effort to hear from

Chapters, especially regarding the seven action items from the Task Force on the Futures. Several chapter members agreed to work together after the meeting to draft a statement of introduction for the first Board meeting and to prepare the formal proposal for presentation by Locke at the Tuesday Board meeting.

ACRL College Library Standards: Bill Nelson, Chapter Rep from Georgia, spoke about the book now available on the standards and indicated his availability, and that of Bob Fernekes, to lead workshops regarding the standards. He indicated that there had already been pre-conferences on the topic in Charlotte and Philadelphia, but he stated that chapters can also sponsor the workshop and do it in a less expensive manner. The Louisiana and Iowa chapters had already held these workshops and made money. He also indicated that if the standard is passed in Orlando, it can be used for regional accreditation purposes.

Post-agenda items: Locke asked for suggestions for the next Chapters Council agenda. A question was asked about the relationship of Chapters Council with the Executive Board and discussion ensued about the role of board members who are nominated by chapters. It was stated that the ACRL President is the official liaison to Chapters but the question was whether Chapters Council has the opportunity to send information to the Board. Members were encouraged to take a look at the strategic plan. A listserv discussion of the topic was encouraged. A second topic related to survey questions that would be good for chapters to use and whether Chapters could get a breakdown by state of the input to the national ACRL survey. It was determined that the past president of Chapters Council would serve as the ex officio member to the ACRL Membership Committee.